1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and the like for providing information by which a state of a space-time change of mechanical excitement of a heart can be directly grasped and analyzable information using heart wall motion information analyzed three-dimensionally and for supporting diagnosis of mainly ischemia diseases.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is very important for diagnosis of body tissues such as cardiac muscle to objectively and quantitatively evaluate motions and functions of the body tissues. Also in image diagnosis using an ultrasonic image processing apparatus, various quantitative evaluations are attempted mainly on the heart as an example. For example, it is known that, in the contracting phase of normal cardiac muscle, the cardiac muscle is thickened in the radial direction (short axis) and is shortened in the longitudinal direction. Generally, it is said that the motion directions of thickening and shortening are orthogonal to each other, and the motions present different mechanisms. By observing the motions and evaluating the heart muscular wall motions, the possibility of diagnosis support on heart diseases such as myocardial infarction is suggested.
As a technique of displaying motion of the intimal surface of the heart or the like, for example, three-dimensional surface rendering display and, Bull's eye display (or polar-map display) are known. Typical examples include four-dimensional TSI (Tissue Synchronization Imaging) and CFM (Contraction Front Mapping). By using the methods, the state of a three-dimensional distribution on motion information of the heart wall can be observed quantitatively.
In studies in recent years, it is known that, for example, in diagnosis of ischemia disease and the like, it is effective to examine the state of space-time propagation of mechanical motion (mechanical excitement) as the pump of the heart.
However, by the conventional methods of displaying heart wall motion information, the state of space-time propagation of mechanical excitement cannot be directly grasped or quantified. For example, the purpose of the CFM is to grasp a deviation between regions at contraction peak timing, so that the state of space-time propagation of the heart wall motion cannot be directly grasped. For example, a technique disclosed in non-patent document 1 provides a distribution image of a certain region at the contraction peak in a time phase. Consequently, a deviation between regions at the contraction peak timing can be grasped, but the state of space-time propagation of the wall motion cannot be directly grasped.